


to go beyond your borders

by apocalyvse



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Anxiety, Bad Parenting, Coming of Age, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, I swear, I'll add more characters as I go along - Freeform, Social Media, THIS ONE IS GONNA BE HAPPY, despite everything that's against them, garbage fire human beings, leon also has Problems, there's just a lot of ocs man, they all have problems, young people learning how awesome they can be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalyvse/pseuds/apocalyvse
Summary: They call Angie a cheat, a bully, and a fraud. Washed up, at the end of her run, incapable of doing her job the way she should and in desperate need of replacement. They say a lot of other things too, online and in little whispers as she passes by, but she stops listening once she gets to the part where they beg for another trainer to be put in as champion, because she can barely hold the cracks together as it is, and the last time she let herself buy too much into what people thought of her, she was nineteen and could barely believe she was worth a dime, to people or her pokemon.Amidst rumour and scandal, Angie disappears from her home region of Sinnoh and runs away to Galar in search of escape…and finds instead, new friends and new challenges, and the courage to face her inner demons, one at a time.
Relationships: Kibana | Raihan/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi! so, just know, this is based mostly off the games and...a little bit off the anime? I've taken some liberties. made it more cool. okay, good. enjoy. yesyesgood.
> 
> please tell me if the social media/texts bits are hard to seperate from the text/make no sense/whatever? formatting is hard bois

**KITTY**

hey

I miss you

_✓_ _Seen 10:23pm_

They meet in Wyndon on a winter’s day, the cold breeze from Route 10’s icy plains blowing them right into each other. Angie is headed into the hotel, Arcanine trudging along behind her, the fire pokemon sick of the snow and the cold. He is running, like he is late to something, bursting out of the hotel and down the stairs and – straight into Angie, knocking her back a step.

Arcanine growls, and he stops in his tracks.

“Hey!” he says as his eyes widen at the sight of the pokemon, who is just the right size to be both cute and terrifying. “Sorry! I didn’t even see you there.”

“It’s fi-” She’d turned around to settle Arcanine, and so she’s halfway through brushing him off when she turns back to him and realises she knows him. Well, of him. He’s easy to recognise, with his distinctive hoodie, wearing shorts instead of pants even though Wyndon is _freezing_ , his phone stuck to his hand like it’s glued there.

“Fine,” she finishes awkwardly, and then clears her throat. She can’t remember his name, but she’s seen him on TV and stuff. The dragon-type user, that’s him, leader number eight in Galar’s Pokemon League. She’s supposed to meet him in Hammerlocke in two days…and yet. Here they are.

“You look like you’re late for something,” she says in lieu of anything like, ‘oh, hey, aren’t you that gym leader’ because she can’t remember his name and, yeah, maybe her mum is right, how she always nags her about working on her memory. Is it Angie’s fault she can remember pokemon types easier than names, or is it just the universe trying to tell her something?

He smiles, broad and red-cheeked from the cold, and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Is it that obvious?” he asks.

“Most people notice the Arcanine before they run into me,” Angie points out, and maybe now his red cheeks aren’t just from the cold. His eyes track left, studying the pokemon.

“True,” he admits. “Nice pokemon, by the way.”

Unafraid, he takes a step forward, offering a hand to Arcanine. He growls again, and then reaches out to sniff at the young man’s fingers, testing to see if he is actually a threat, or just a well-meaning dumbass (Angie’s pretty sure that, put on a battlefield, this boy would be a very formidable opponent, but out here…well, she can trust Arcanine. She knows that much).

“Thanks,” she says, and watches as his fingers sink into her Arcanine’s mane, searching for a pro-offered itchy spot.

“Do you battle?” he asks as he scratches her pokemon’s neck. Arcanine near melts to the ground in pleasure at the attention. She wonders for a moment if he will abandon her now that he’s met this boy, and his clever fingers.

 _Do you battle_ , indeed. She can’t help but laugh just a little at the irony of it, though it’s a joke only she is privy to. “Sometimes,” she tells him, and it comes out in the sort of voice that implies there is much more to the story than she is letting on. And then, because she can, she adds, “You’re a gym leader, aren’t you?”

“I am,” he confirms brightly. “Name’s Raihan.” He reaches into his back pocket to retrieve a League Card. “Here, for running into you.”

“Thanks,” she says slowly and takes the card from him. It’s the first League Card she’s been given since arriving here, and she’s not really sure what to do with it, so she just tucks it into her pocket for later.

As she puts away the card, his phone dings in his pocket, loud and insistent, distracting him. Abandoned, Arcanine whines and then returns to her, nudging her arm insistently. He’s a big baby, this pokemon – won’t battle to save his own life, but always desperate for attention. She regrets not leaving him a Growlithe, even now as she tugs at a bit of his mane and he shuffles away, disappointed.

“I’ve gotta run,” Raihan says suddenly, and his feet are already moving backwards, away from her. “It was nice meeting you!” He waves, phone glued to his hand again, and then disappears into the evening.

“Was it nice meeting him?” Angie asks her Arcanine, who is still sulking just out of reach. The lion pokemon huffs a breath in her general direction, hot and grumpy, and she rolls her eyes. “Come on,” she tells him, and manages to gently grab his ear before he can get away from her again, tugging him playfully towards the hotel. “It’s too cold out here.”

Whining and shaking her off, Arcanine follows her inside.

**PIKAGRAM**

**dragon-tamer** posted a photo **  
**_quick stop in wyndon to train with @championleon on my way home!_

“Welcome to Hammerlocke Stadium,” her guide says as they walk through a tunnel and out into the large battle arena that hides at the back of Hammerlocke’s famous tower. “This is where all battles for the final gym badge are held during our gym challenge season, and is also a top training facility for Hammerlocke’s best up-and-coming challengers the rest of the year.”

The stadium itself is bigger than Angie had anticipated. It’s quiet, on its rare day off, the stands empty and the sun gazing through the open roof to the battle arena below. The grass is grown thick and short across the pitch, muffling the sound of her footsteps as she walks out onto it. She feels small, surrounded by the vastness of it all; Angie’s battled in castles and towers and open fields, but she’s never seen anything like the custom-built spaces of Galar. No wonder they pushed the Dynamax thing for all the ticket sales they could get, with a space like this to maintain – and no wonder people came to watch the show, with all of this to cater for them.

“Can I…?” she asks, and gestures towards the centre of the pitch.

“Of course,” her guide replies, and he hangs back, letting her cross the field alone.

By habit, she goes to the leader’s side of the arena, not even thinking about it. There’s a bare patch in the ground where this gym’s leader has stomped and kicked at the grass one too many times, and it’s the perfect equidistance from where a challenger would stand, just enough room in between for two pokemon to unleash their full potential. And all that empty space that’s left behind her…well. For a minute, she stands in that spot and imagines a pokemon towering over her. Something strong, like her Staraptor back at home (what would the Galarian equivalent be – a Corviknight?). Or Luxray, who was by far her most formidable pokemon by character.

“You know, if you want to challenge the gym, you’re supposed to stand on the other side of the arena.”

Her head snaps around, to find the source of the voice that echoes through the stands behind her. He’s not hard to spot, walking across the grass with his eyes on his phone rather than anything that’s happening around him – Raihan, Hammerlocke gym leader. Guy who literally ran into her two days ago in Wyndon.

“I know,” she says, but doesn’t move, not even when he walks right up to her. “I was just-”

“Admiring the view?” he finishes before she can, and looks up from his phone with a wicked grin.

“Sure,” she allows, and he huffs a breath, amused.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” he asks next, and he’s studying her face like he’s trying to place her. It’s then that her guide catches up with them, obviously having seen something brewing from the tunnel she’d left him in.

“Leader Raihan,” he says, and he sounds faintly out of breath, like he’d walked too fast crossing the arena. “This is Angela Sommars, the Champion of the Sinnoh Pokemon League. We were just coming to meet you in the back room.”

“Angie,” she corrects immediately, before anyone can start thinking it’s a good idea to call her Angela.

“Angie,” Raihan repeats, like he’s trying to commit it to memory. “I’m Raihan, Hammerlocke’s gym leader.” They shake hands. His fingers are warm and calloused, worn from outdoor work, and from pokemon moves too, she’d guess. Hers are the same; it’s the sort of thing battling does to you, if you get too serious about it. And if you were part of a League…well, you’re guaranteed a few scars, a few collisions with errant pokemon or their moves.

“I know,” Angie says as they shake hands, and if she sounds a little smug - well, she can’t help it. “We met in Wyndon the other day. You ran into me.”

“Oh, right!” Recognition lights up Raihan’s face. “At the hotel, right? You had an Arcanine.” His face falls again, just a little. “You told me you don’t battle.”

“I said I battle _sometimes_ ,” she says, and almost laughs at his face. “Your region has dumb import rules, so I don’t have a team with me right now.”

“What about the Arcanine?”

“ _He_ ,” she says very firmly. “Is absolutely _useless_ in a fight.” Raihan’s laugh is loud and unexpected, echoing in the empty stands.

“How does a champion end up with an evolved pokemon that doesn’t battle?” he asks, bemused.

Angie shrugs. “Sometimes evolution can make timid pokemon more confident,” she rattles off, like she’s talking to one of her students rather than an experienced gym leader. “It didn’t really work for him, so I gave up.”

“You can’t change a pokemon’s nature with evolution.”

“We all make mistakes.”

Angie’s guide clears his throat, interrupting them before they can say anything else. “Miss Sommars is hoping to enter the gym challenge this year,” he says when he has their attention. “The board recommended she come to Hammerlocke for a letter of endorsement.”

“Oh?” Fresh curiousity lights up Raihan’s face as he turns back to Angie. “Why not just write your own letter?”

“ _Apparently_ , Sinnoh badges mean nothing to Galar’s Pokemon League,” Angie huffs in explanation, obviously irritated by the stupidity of it. “They want it all done _properly_ , whatever that means.”

Raihan frowns. “Well if you want to go by the book, then I can’t help you,” he says. “I’m supposed to see challengers train and battle before I endorse them for the gym challenge, and if you don’t have a team…”

Angie lets out a frustrated noise, and crosses her arms over her chest. “That’s ridiculous!” she snaps angrily, mostly to the empty air rather than the people around her. “I can’t catch pokemon in Galar until I’m registered with the League, but I can’t register with the League if I don’t have any pokemon?”

She looks at Raihan, and Raihan looks the League staff member who is acting as her guide. The guide shrugs. “Beaurocracy, man,” he says, surprising Angie with how casually it comes out of his mouth.

While she’s busy staring at the guide, Raihan opens up his phone, tapping out some sort of small essay and waiting for a reply. “I might know someone who can help you,” he says after a long pause, and glances up from his phone. “I’m also supposed to be meeting him for lunch in…ten minutes. You’re welcome to come, if you want.”

Angie hesitates, feeling like she’s intruding…but she also _really_ wants that endorsement. _Needs_ that endorsement. “That would be great,” she agrees, and Raihan grins, apparently more than happy to help.

“Great!” he says. “It’s the café just down the street - I’ll meet you out by the front desk in a minute? I’ve just got to finish one thing before I go.”

“Alright,” Angie agrees.

“I’ll show her the way,” her guide puts in helpfully, his hands tucked behind his back. Raihan thanks him, and then strides away, his eyes snapping back to his phone. Angie takes one last look around the stadium, and then follows the guide back through the maze of halls and rooms that make up the backside of the stadium, until they re-emerge in the public lobby of the stadium.

She stands there looking idly at things on her phone while she waits, but it takes less than five minutes before Raihan appears again, his phone nowhere to be seen this time. “Ready?” he asks, and Angie follows him outside, blinking against the bright, midday sun.

“So then,” he says as they walk, hands in his pockets. “Tell me all your secrets, Sinnoh Champion Angie.”

“What makes you think I have any secrets to tell?” she asks.

He shrugs. “You don’t seem like the sort of person who could be boring.”

“Thanks?” she says, not entirely sure that what she’s getting is a compliment.

“How did you get into battling?” he asks. “Just started as a kid like everyone else, or…?”

“No, I got into it when I was like, fourteen,” she says and reaches up to fix her hair in an attempt to relieve her own awkward tension. “I competed in Pokemon Contests when I was a kid, only started battling when I got sick of that.”

“Pokemon Contests?” he questions and withdraws his phone from his pocket. “You mean those fashion competitions they do for cute pokemon?”

“Sort of,” she says, even though he’s turned to his phone for a definitive answer, searching the internet for information on contests. “There’s a presentation part, an obedience trial, and then the talent contest.” She pauses, and then adds. “It sounds dumb, but it’s actually really similar to training pokemon for battles.”

“Wait a minute,” Raihan says, trying to stifle a laugh, and turns his phone for her to see. “Is this you?”

Angie leans closer to look at the photo he’s trying to show her and yes, it’s her alright. It’s a photo from when she was a kid, smiling prettily in a bright pink dress and an oversized bow that’s perched amidst bleach-blonde curls. She’s holding a big contest ribbon and smiling proudly next to a Pachirisu, standing front and centre of the big contest stage at Hearthome City.

“You know, guys usually buy me dinner before they start looking up embarrassing photos of me,” she says coolly, and hopes she isn’t turning red.

“Your fashion sense hasn’t changed much,” is all Raihan says in reply, looking from her to the photo and back again. Angie looks down at her clothes and then remembers her skirt is pink – and so is the bottom half of her hair, incidentally, though that pink is a lot softer in colour than her garishly bright neon skirt.

“That’s just offensive,” she says, and smooths the skirt out a bit.

Raihan grins. “Do I owe you two dinners now?” he asks, utterly unapologetic.

“You owe the colour pink a formal apology,” she replies, quick as a whip. “Pink is a good colour.”

He laughs, and keeps scrolling. “Watch out if you go to Ballonlea,” he advises her off-handedly. “There’s a crazy old lady at the gym there who will forcefully adopt you if she thinks you like pink.”

Angie frowns in confusion, but doesn’t ask him to expand on that statement. She’s not even sure she wants to know. “What about you?” she asks instead. “Got a starter from a professor, or given a pokemon by your parents?”

“ _Ha_ ,” he sniffs. “Stole some pokeballs from my sister and caught my own pokemon.”

Angie stares at him, and then bursts out laughing. “You did _not_ ,” she says

“Oh, I did,” he insists. It takes Angie a second to realise he is telling the truth – as the realisation dawns on her face, he grins, wide and wild.

“What pokemon was it?” she asks, out of sheer curiousity.

She expects him to say something small and ordinary, like a Bunnelby, or a Budew, or a Skwovet – the sorts of pokemon children usually catch, or are given. Easy to find, and easy to care for, unlikely to hurt a small child or an inexperienced trainer accidentally. But instead, Raihan takes a breath and says, “Duraludon.”

Angie does a double-take. She’s never seen a Duraludon in the flesh, but she’s seen pictures of them, and read all kinds of pokedex entries – they’re big, steel creatures, sharp-edged and finnicky and difficult to master, not at all the sort of pokemon you choose to start with. Even she doesn’t deal with large and reclusive pokemon like them very often, though she does plenty of training for other people; few trainers at all choose to pursue them, and the ones that do usually either master the art of training them themselves, or are forced to release the pokemon back to the wild.

“That’s…impressive,” she admits slowly, as they draw to a halt outside the café. “How’d you find it? And train it, if it was your first pokemon?”

Raihan waves her away. “It’s a long story,” he says dismissively, and opens the door for her. She gives him a look, but doesn’t persist, because they have arrived now, at a lively little café that is open and bright and airy inside, despite the big, dark walls on its outside. “Leon!” Raihan calls out and then crosses the café, leaving her to follow in his wake.

He makes a beeline straight for a man sitting alone in a booth against the back wall, quietly reading a menu while he waits. Angie recognises him as he looks up to greet Raihan – this is the champion of Galar. Well, the past champion of Galar, if she has understood the news around the place correctly. His face is everywhere you go in this region, even though it’s been five and something months since he lost his title. He’s still plastered across billboards in every city she’s been to, and stickered on the side of trains and buses. Just last week, she’d ended up watching half of a TV show that had dedicated an entire hour of their runtime to dissecting the statistics and characteristics of his League team.

“Budge up,” Raihan tells him cheerfully, and he does as requested, putting down his menu and scooting over towards the window. Angie sits down across from them, and plays with the corner of her own menu.

“Angie, this is ex-champion Leon,” Raihan introduces as he settles in, a lazy grin spreading across his face. “Leon, this is the current Sinnoh Champion, Angie.”

“Sinnoh?” Leon says curiously, and Angie nods. “I think I’ve heard of you before, actually. Your ace is a Gallade?”

“Oh,” Angie says, and shakes her head quickly before there can be any confusion. “No, that’s the girl who’s acting as Champion while I’m away. I headline with Absol or Gengar, at the moment.”

“Oh, right.” He scratches the back of his head, looking suitably embarrassed with himself. “Sorry.”

“You have a Charizard, right?” Angie asks before any kind of awkwardness can set in. “I didn’t think Galar had Charizard.”

“We don’t,” Raihan confirms. “He got special permission, because the League board are in love with him.”

“They are not,” Leon replies. “I just made a very good argument in favour of it.”

“Did you tell them a Charizard would make every battle a _champion time_?”

Angie doesn’t quite get the joke, but Leon puts his head in his hands as Raihan starts snickering, pleased with his own wit. Their waitress arrives before Leon can think of anything cutting to say in response, and they manage to place their orders around Raihan cracking more jokes of the same variety. Angie goes for a persim berry soup, which is a shot in the dark, really; she’s eaten persims before, on occasion, but berries as people food wasn’t such a popular idea in Sinnoh, for whatever reason, so she’s definitely never had them in a soup.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Leon says when they are done, and fixes his eyes on Angie. “What brings you to Galar?”

Angie shrugs. “I came for your gym challenge,” she tells him. “But I’m having a bit of trouble with your League board, so I don’t know if I’ll actually get to enter. I guess I’m just on holiday if I can’t.”

“Can you believe,” Raihan says, and elbows Leon, paying attention to the conversation again now apparently. “That they want her to get an endorsement letter? Even a freakin’ champion can’t just roll up and register for the gym challenge.”

Leon frowns at his friend. “Is this what you need my help with?”

Raihan nods. “They sent Angie to my gym for an endorsement,” he explains and leans back comfortably in his seat. “But I have to see challengers battle before I can endorse them, y’know, and Angie here doesn’t have any pokemon with her.”

“I left Sinnoh on short notice,” Angie explains patiently at the look Leon gives her. “Galar’s laws on importing pokemon are a _nightmare_ , and my team is basically all Sinnoh-specific pokemon, so…”

“Didn’t you say you have a Gengar?” Leon points out. “Gengar are native to Galar.”

Angie stifles a laugh at the thought of it. “My Gengar isn’t really…people friendly,” she says slowly. “He’s good in the League battles, but he’s not much of a travelling companion.” There aren’t many Gengar who make good companions – they’re not exactly cute and cuddly creatures, nor can you take them for a walk in the park or a pampering at a groomer’s – but Angie’s is on another level of terrifying and unsocialised.

“ _Ghost types_ ,” Raihan mutters and visibly shudders. “Couldn’t pay me to train one.”

“Could say the same about dragon types,” Angie bites back, slightly offended on the behalf of her ghost pokemon. She quite likes them, really; there’s a challenge in training them, and they’re not a typical choice for most challengers.

“ _Ouch._ ” Raihan presses a hand to his chest, like he’s been shot. “And here I am, trying to help you.”

“Wait,” Leon says suddenly, before Raihan or Angie can make another dig about dragon types. “If you don’t have any pokemon, why don’t you just go out and catch one?”

“I can’t catch pokemon in this region without a League registration,” Angie sighs. “But I can’t get a League registration without a gym leader’s endorsement.”

“And an endorsement requires a battle,” Raihan adds for her.

Leon looks troubled, one finger tapping his chin as he thinks. “It’s really that hard to enter the gym challenge if you aren’t from Galar?”

“You should see the paperwork required to bring six pokemon here from another region,” Angie answers dryly. “It takes _weeks_ just to get a ‘maybe’. And they never even got around to sending me the stuff you have to fill out to actually use non-Galar pokemon in the gym challenge.”

“I’m going to make a few calls,” Leon says, and pulls out his phone. “Let me out, Raihan?”

“Leon is _basically_ chairman of the League board,” Raihan informs Angie as he stands to let Leon out and then sits back down again. “They just won’t vote him in ‘cause he thinks he’s going to win the championship back this year.”

“Didn’t something happen with the chairman of your board last year?” Angie asks, pretty sure she’d seen something in the news about it at some point.

Raihan pulls a face. “Yeah, he hatched a legendary pokemon under Hammerlocke and almost destroyed the whole region,” he tells her, and the way he says it is disturbingly casual compared to what he’s saying. “It’s all under control not though, and Rose is gonna be locked up forever, so…yeah.”

“That’s crazy,” Angie says, and then falls silent. She’s trying to think of something that can compare to that story, but nothing involving legendary pokemon has happened in Sinnoh for several years now, and even then, the action always seems to kick off at the top of Mount Coronet, which is possibly the most remote location you could find in the whole region.

In the silence that follows, Raihan fiddles with his phone, and she wracks her brain for something else to say. Her eyes wander to Leon, visible through the windows on the other side of the room. He’s on the phone, in the midst of a heated conversation from the look on his face. Angie hopes it’s going in his favour.

“Hey, you still need to tell me about your Duraludon,” she says as the thought comes to her mind, her attention returning to Raihan.

He looks up but doesn’t put down his phone. “What do you want to know?” he asks.

Angie shrugs. “How’d you catch it? You would have been a little kid, right? I thought Duraludon were hard pokemon to work with.”

He smiles, and goes back to fiddling with his phone. “I was ten,” he tells her. “I found her out in the rain on Route 6, just outside Stow-On-Side – I grew up there, my family all live over that way – and …well, I like to say she knew I’d be a great trainer, but she probably just thought being caught was better than being stuck there any longer.”

“Duraludon don’t like the rain?”

“No,” Raihan says and straightens a little in his seat. “Their bodies rust easily in damp places. That’s why they usually live underground. I don’t know why mine was stuck out in the rain – I think maybe she came up looking for food or something and got stuck out there, and by the time I found her, she was weak enough that I could just catch her.”

“Was she hard to train?” Angie asks, genuinely curious.

“Nah, my sister helped,” Raihan answers. “And she took months to recover, so we had time to get to know each other before she got real difficult. She’s the ace in all of my teams now, so I guess it didn’t turn out too badly.”

“There’s not many kids who can pull that sort of trick off,” Angie says thoughtfully, and if he hears the indirect compliment in it, he doesn’t react. “I do a lot of training for other people, and I couldn’t even tell you how many pokemon I’ve worked with who were just given to kids or caught by them when they didn’t know how to handle them properly.”

“You train _other people’s_ pokemon?” Raihan looks at her like she’s crazy, like he’s never heard such a thing before. “You can be a trainer in Sinnoh without training your own pokemon?”

“If you’re rich, you can be,” Angie informs him flippantly. “It’s not like, normal trainers who are going for their gym badges; more like, rich people who want a bit of experience in their pokemon for their weekend battling club, or kids and their pokemon who aren’t really growing together, or pokemon that have been handled wrong, like my Gengar.”

“What’s up with your Gengar?” he asks. “You said before he’s not…friendly?”

“He’s…difficult,” she explains. “I got him off a girl who competes in Contests in Hearthome – our gym leader there, Fantina, is a popular Contest star and specialises in ghost types, so this girl decided she’d get herself a ghost type too. I think she was kind of scared of him though, because she never really bonded with him even though she kept evolving him, and he ended up just being completely out of control. He was pretty powerful though, so I volunteered to take him. And now he’s on my champion’s team.”

“Just another day in the life of a champion, hm?” Raihan comments, and then Leon returns and their food arrives and just like that, their conversation is over. Angie’s soup appears in front of her while the boys arrange themselves on their side of the booth, followed shortly by their own meals, and then Angie thanks the waitress for them as she walks away.

“Figure anything out?” Raihan asks Leon when they are done, and picks up his fork.

“If Angie can find someone to lend her a pokemon, they’ll make an exception and let her battle with it to get an endorsement,” Leon tells them. “They made it very clear that this is a one-time deal, and only because she’s the Sinnoh champion.” He shakes his head and sighs. “It’s like they’re purposefully trying to make it hard for trainers from other regions to come and compete in Galar.”

“So much for ‘making Galar trainers the strongest in the world!’” Raihan quotes mockingly. “The League board don’t know a thing about battling.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Angie puts in. “The Sinnoh board is just as useless. I feel like I spend most of my time just cleaning up their messes.”

“That _does_ make me feel better, actually,” Leon says with a smile, and takes a big bite of his lunch. “I don’t know how you escaped, if your League is anything like ours. I’m not even champion anymore, and I’m still doing all their work.”

“Oh, I…” Angie stirs her soup, and tries to put together an answer that doesn’t make her seem absolutely awful. “I pretty much just walked out,” she finishes finally. “Found them someone to replace me for a while and left the region. They’re not very happy about it, but they’ll live.” She fills her mouth with soup before they can pursue the topic further.

They leave it there, thankfully, the conversation turning back to Galar’s League officials and Leon’s current endeavour – he’s building a battle tower, apparently, up in Wyndon. Angie listens with interest but doesn’t butt in, other than to comment on one or two features of Sinnoh’s Battle Frontier, which is much of the same thing, but more established. She doesn’t have all of the answers Leon is looking for, unfortunately – unlike the League, she’s not aware of all the inner workings of the battle tower. The League is her job, and the battle tower is just a hobby that she pursues on her weekends, and for the odd special event.

“So,” Raihan says when the food is finished, his eyes set more on his phone screen than his dining companions. “Stadium? Battle? I’ve got time now, if you want.” He glances up at Angie, questioning.

“I still need a pokemon,” she points out.

Raihan shrugs. “I’ve got a couple at the gym. I always have some ready for new gym trainers, in case we have to change up their teams.”

“Alright,” Angie agrees. Raihan grins, and then nudges Leon.

“Are you coming to watch?” he asks the ex-champion. “Or do you have very important League business to go to?”

“League business is champion business,” Leon answers as they shuffle out of the booth. Raihan stands and stretches. “Gloria beat me for it, she can deal with it for a couple of hours.”

“You sound so happy about it, and yet you still want the job back,” Raihan says and claps Leon on the back.

“Well, we can’t have anyone like you becoming the champion,” Leon retorts, and laughs as Raihan shakes his head. “Shall we go?”

THE BATTLE CORNER BUZZ  
_your source for all things battling!_

**Latest News**

**LAUREN THE LION Makes Her Return!**

Today in the Sinnoh League, it’s the news you’ve all been waiting for – Lauren La Barca is your champion once again!

The change in position came early this morning, and has been long anticipated by certain sections of fans and competitive trainers alike, amidst recent claims against ever-controversial current champion Angie Sommars. Reportedly, Sommars will not step down permanently from the position, but is only temporarily unavailable. There has been no further information released.

It’s no secret that Lauren ‘The Lion’ La Barca is a crowd favourite in the League, with a wit and charm that almost level up to the ferocity of her skill in battle. It is also no secret that she has been long tipped to inherit Sommars’ position sooner or later, despite the latter’s absolute domination of the League over the last two years. Fans have suggested already that today’s sudden change in champions could be linked to the recent (and very public) drama between Sommars and the Elite Four, in which…

Read More


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm just riffing here. let me know what you think x)

**MUM**

battlebuzz.snh/lauren-lion-makes-return/ 

were you planning on telling me  
that you’ve given up your title?

_✓_ _Seen 10:01am_

As far as exhibition matches go, this one is turning out to be pretty interesting, Angie is surprised to find.

It’s mostly because of the circumstances than the actual battle. It’s not very often she finds herself on a practise pitch in the back of a very large stadium, battling with nothing but a baby pokemon she just met five minutes ago. The girl across from her is Aria, and is apparently the top gym trainer of Hammerlocke Stadium. She is already endorsed for the gym challenge this year, Raihan has informed them proudly when she had been introduced. She’s brought her own baby pokemon, and has already warned them that she’s done a far better job training it than anyone has Angie’s.

With that in mind, Angie’s feeling _great_ about her chances.

“Off you go, then,” Raihan says with a lazy wave of his hand, and they throw their pokeballs. Aria’s got an Axew, a compact little dragon-type that reminds Angie of a Gible, although Gible are more engineered for biting, while the Axew is built for climbing and clawing. That’s about all she knows about the pokemon – she’s going to have to do some more research on Galar’s pokedex, if she’s really going to take on their League.

Angie herself has a Trapinch, a pure ground-type. It’s not the sort of pokemon she was expecting, or the sort she would usually choose to work with, so she’s a little off-kilter already – but she’s come to Galar for a challenge, and she’s determined that she will rise to it.

“You make the first move,” Aria calls to her kindly, and Angie glances down at her hand. She’s got Trapinch’s moveset written on her palm in smudged ink, because she hasn’t had time to memorise it yet. It’s unprofessional, but it’s better than forgetting what she’s got halfway through a fight.

“Trapinch?” she says, and her pokemon turns to look at her and squawks in reply. “Use Bite!” she directs, pointing towards the Axew. Trapinch cries out again, much louder this time, and leaps towards their opponent, jaws open wide.

“Slash, Axew!” Aria cries in response and her Axew leaps into action too. They meet in the middle of the field, in a crash of teeth and claws.

“Trapinch, Mud Slap!” Angie calls just as they part. Aria’s only a moment behind with her second move, but Trapinch is too fast; it digs its nose into the field and flicks dirt upwards, straight into its opponent’s face. Axew stumbles backwards, screeching in confusion and swiping wildly. It misses Trapinch multiple times before it gives up and scrubs at its eyes instead, clawing off the dirt.

“Focus now, Axew!” Aria calls, patient and sweet, and her pokemon shakes itself off and squares up. She hadn’t been lying earlier; this pokemon is young, but it is well-trained. New pokemon are notorious for becoming distracted or unbalanced and confused, and opening themselves up to attack, and for Aria’s to snap back to attention so quickly is a testament to her skill at training. Angie is suitably impressed.

“Mud Slap again, Trapinch!” she calls, beginning the next turn.

“Protect!” Aria shouts, and as Trapinch sends dirt flying, Axew curls into a ball, hiding from any damage Angie’s move could do. “Dragon Claw!” is Aria’s next call as the dust settles, and Axew uncurls and leaps forward, eyes and claws glowing.

Angie has to glance down at her hand before she can respond, and that costs her valuable seconds. “Bulldoze!” she cries, but she’s too late, and Axew is ready for her. Trapinch digs in and sets the ground shaking, ripping up the field, and although Axew is thrown off its feet, it only rolls and grunts and then pops back up, taking two long strides and then reaching for Trapinch with a set of deadly claws.

Angie winces as her Trapinch takes the damage and then falls to the ground, utterly spent. She calls it back without another word, a little disappointed in herself for the loss. Maybe they were right, back home. Maybe her time as champion was running out.

“That was _so_ good,” Aria says as she steps across the field to shake Angie’s hand. “I don’t know if I’d be able to beat you if you had a pokemon you actually know.”

“Thanks,” Angie replies, though the compliment doesn’t do much to assuage the fear that lurks in the back of her mind. “I hope your gym challenge goes well.”

Aria grins. “I’ll see you at the finals,” she says confidently.

“And _I’ll_ kick both of your asses,” Raihan puts in and pats Aria on the head. Leon completes the circle, standing on Raihan’s right with his hands in his pockets.

“You’ll have to get past me first,” he says, innocently enough, and Raihan sputters and almost drops his phone.

“I’m going to beat you this year,” he says and points a finger in Leon’s direction, deadly serious. “Twelve’s my lucky number. You’ll see.”

“So, you’ll be going to Motostoke for the opening ceremony then, huh?” Aria asks over their bickering, turning to Angie.

“I guess so,” Angie replies slowly, having remembered just now that the opening ceremony is a thing and she is going to have to participate in it now. She’d read about it before coming to Galar, of course, when she’d been trying to make heads or tails of how their League works, but she’s really got no idea what it entails.

“You know, there’s a bunch of us going down tomorrow,” Aria tells her. “We’re going to go through the Wild Area and do a bit of training, and then catch a cab from the Pokemon Nursery by the bridge. You could come with us, if you want.”

“Are you sure?” Angie’s almost astounded by the offer – she’s been a little daunted by the idea of going into Galar’s famed Wild Area alone, especially without a couple of pokemon. It’s not like going by roads, she knows – it’s full of wild pokemon that are itching for a fight, and there are few places that can offer a reprieve, to the point where casual tourists are advised to avoid it, in case they get lost or attacked by the more unfriendly creatures there. Angie’s no tourist, but she knows how to be well-prepared – and right now, she is not.

Thankfully, Aria nods eagerly. “There’s some other trainers who are building teams from scratch, so you’ll fit right in, and I’d be really interested to see how you train,” she insists. “Plus, it’s a field trip for all the trainers endorsed by Hammerlocke Gym, which you are. You’re basically one of us now – especially if you’re going to keep the Trapinch.”

Angie does a double-take, her fingers brushing over her pocket. Trapinch’s pokeball sits light and warm inside it. After a week of having empty pockets, she is glad for the familiar weight of it, even if it is not one of her Sinnoh team.

“I can keep the Trapinch?” she asks in surprise, because this is the first she’s heard about it.

Aria shrugs. “You _should_ ,” she says. “You worked so well together, and you’ve only just met. Hey, Raihan-” She turns and taps the gym leader on the arm several times until he breaks off from his conversation with Leon to answer her.

“Can Angie keep the Trapinch?” she asks, and his eyes turn to Angie, careful and calculating. Sizing her up. It’s faintly unnerving, but she grits her teeth and takes it.

“Do you want a Flygon on your team?” he asks finally.

Angie thinks about it, and then nods. “It’s not my usual choice of types,” she replies. “But I can work with it.” She could adapt to any type of pokemon, if she had to. Her mind is already buzzing with ideas and outlines for a team – she will add a fire type, of course, but then she will need water or grass too, and flying or fighting or something, to fill in the common types…and maybe a ghost type too, another one of her favourites.

It hits her suddenly that she can build a team with whatever pokemon she likes here – there will be no one watching or judging, no expectation for her to choose pokemon that are renowned for being powerful. She can put whatever niche types she likes on her team – starting with ground, apparently.

Raihan grins, obviously reading her thoughts on her face. “It’s all yours,” he assures her.

“Thankyou,” she tells him wholeheartedly, and her hand slips into her pocket and curls around the pokeball. _Hers_ , a little ground type she’s hardly heard of. She takes a breath and wonders if she’s ever been quite this kind of excited-but-nervous about pokemon before. Even on her journey through Sinnoh, to all the gyms, nothing this spontaneous had ever occurred.

Galar is going to be it’s own adventure, it would seem, far from the strict schedules and sleepless nights of her usual life.

**dragon-tamer posted a photo  
** _it’s that time of the year again! three days until the opening ceremony – which means the kids want to go out and catch some pokemon before the big day. they grow up so fast :’)_

Angie meets with the group of gym trainers first thing the next morning, at the very edge of the city where a big archway and a set of covered stairs lead down into the Wild Area; the part of Galar she is most anxious to see. Aria is the first to greet her, pulling her first over to a waiting Flying Taxi to hand over the bag that contains everything she doesn’t want to be lugging around in the wild (and to pet the Corviknight that sits atop the cab. It seems to greatly appreciate Aria’s offering of berries) and then over to the group gathered at the top of the stairs.

There’s twelve of them in all, standing in a circle chatting about how early it is, and how excited they are to go. Most of the group is made up of teenagers – only one girl is super young, twelve or thirteen, the rest upwards of fifteen, and then a couple of other girls closer to Angie and Aria’s age. She recognises none of them, apart from Aria and Raihan, who stands at the other side of the circle, immersed in a conversation with two younger boys who look very nervous.

“Want me to introduce you to everyone?” Aria asks, but Angie shakes her head.

“I’ll meet everyone as we go,” she assures the Hammerlocke girl. The others don’t seem very interested in meeting her anyway – a few shoot her curious glances, but for the most part they look away, or don’t even notice her arrival, already wrapped up in their own conversations.

“Why are you?” a voice asks at her elbow, and she almost jumps into the air. One of the other girls stands next to her, staring at her with a sort of natural intensity that is hard to compete with. She can’t be more than fourteen years old, despite this, with a fresh face and a pout to her lips that speaks volumes about her attitude. A halo of dark curls surrounds her head, bouncing softly as she crosses her arms, waiting for Angie to respond.

“I’m Angie,” she says after a beat, and shifts the straps of her backpack like she’s trying to get comfortable. The girl’s gaze is unwavering. “Who are you?”

“I’m Eliza,” she informs her. “Are you a gym trainer?”

“Angie’s from overseas,” Aria puts in, before Eliza can ask any more questions. “I battled her yesterday, remember? Raihan’s giving her an endorsement for the gym challenge.”

“Really?” Eliza asks and looks up at Angie in disbelief. “You just walked in off the street and got endorsed?”

“I’ve got eight badges in my own region,” Angie tells her, bemused.

“Angie!” Raihan sees her as she speaks, cutting through the group to stand next to Aria. “You made it!” His tone is upbeat, but there’s a tension to his shoulders and a tightness in his smile that makes her stomach twist itself into a sudden knot. There’s something different today, from yesterday, a change in the way he stands and how his eyes meet hers and then move on to Aria, before she can meet them. It makes her worry – that she’s done something wrong, or that maybe he wishes she hadn’t come at all.

“Ready to go?” he asks, mostly to Aria.

She looks around, at all the other trainers, and then shrugs and nods. “Everyone’s here,” she tells him. “It’s not far to the Dusty Bowl anyway; there’ll be time while we’re down there for anyone to come back for something they’ve forgotten.”

“Alright then,” he says and claps his hands as he turns to the rest of the group, catching their attention. “Time to go!” he tells them at large and then leads the way down the stairs, without so much as a backwards glance.

“He seems…stressed?” Angie says hesitantly to Aria as they take the stairs, trailing along at the back of the pack.

Aria looks forward, to where they can just see Raihan at the foot of the staircase. “Nah,” she says with a wave of a hand. “I mean, maybe a bit, but I don’t think Raihan knows how _to_ be stressed, really. He’s just being a bit weird because he’s losing so many of us this week.”

Angie looks down, over the small crowd of trainers. “None of you are coming back to Hammerlocke’s gym?”

“The kids will,” Aria says. “Some of the others won’t though. I’m not either – I’m going to try to get into Hulbury’s gym program next year – unless I _happen_ to win the Champion’s Cup.”

They reach the bottom of the stairs, and re-join the little group of other trainers, who are looking out over the Hammerlocke Hills with excitement. It’s a lovely day out there, sunny and warm with just a breath of wind to stir up the bird pokemon who soar in lazy circles over their heads. Raihan and the boys he’d been talking to before are already setting off to the left, the rest of the group stringing out behind them. Eliza is waiting for them as the others walk away, shuffling her feet impatiently with her hands wrapped around the straps of her oversized backpack.

“So what do you do in Sinnoh?” Aria asks as they set off too, padding through the damp grass.

“Um…I train pokemon,” Angie says awkwardly, and then realises there’s really no subtle way to tell them about her job. “I’m actually…the champion? But I’m taking a break right now.”

“You’re _what_?” Aria screeches, and half of the group glances back at them.

“You’re kidding, right?” Eliza adds in disbelief. “No _way_ you’re the champion – right?”

“I’m not!” Angie fumbles around in the inner pocket of her jacket, hurrying to pull out her Sinnoh League card before they can convince themselves she’s joking. Or start searching the internet. “See?” she says and holds the card out of them to see, pointing to the League logo and the line of text that identifies her as a League trainer and the Champion.

Eliza leans closer, peering at it like she can’t quite believe it. “Well shit,” she says and straightens, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

Aria is still reeling. “I beat you in a battle,” she says slowly. “I’ve battled a champion. I’ve never even battles Leon. And I _beat_ you.”

“You’ve been beaten by the current champion,” Eliza puts in. Aria leans around Angie to give her a withering look.

“That was for the gym,” she says, and blows Eliza off. “I’m supposed to get beaten in gym battles, or Raihan’d have nothing to do. I’m basically one for one.”

“Didn’t you battle with little baby pokemon? That doesn’t even count?”

“It can count,” Angie puts in. “Not the most embarrassing loss I’ve ever had.” Not by far; unlike Leon, she’s not unbeatable. “We should have a rematch sometime, when I’ve had a chance to actually train my pokemon,” she offers to Aria.

The girl’s eyes almost bulge out of her head. “Really?” she says. “I would _love_ that!”

“I want a battle too,” Eliza puts in. “If Aria gets to brag she’s beaten a champion, I should too.”

“It’s not really worth bragging about,” Angie warns, tucking her League card back in her pocket. “Heaps of people have beaten me.”

“It’s still cool,” Eliza insists. “So? Battle? Before we leave Motostoke?”

“Alright,” Angie agrees, and the girl grins, satisfied. “As long as you guys give me a hand catching a Vulpix today.”

“Oh, easy,” Aria says and waves a hand. “There’s heaps of Vulpix in the Dusty Bowl, we’ll be able to get one straight away.”

“You’re going to have a Ninetales on your team?” Eliza asks, and she sounds genuinely curious.

Angie nods. “I would have chosen Arcanine, but I haven’t had much luck with them in the past,” she says wryly. “And I’ve never actually trained a Ninetales.”

“ _I’m_ going to have an Arcanine,” Eliza announces.

“I’m sticking to the dragon types,” Aria says.

“What are you going to do at Ballonlea and Circhester?” Eliza snorts. “Dragon types are no good against them.” _Fairy and ice_ , Angie recalls. The only weaknesses dragon types had, except for themselves.

“A steel type,” Aria shoots back, just as fast as Eliza had asked. “I’ve got a surprise for Raihan too, but I’m not going to tell you what it is. I don’t want him to know about it.”

“Alright then, miss mystery,” Eliza says, all sass. “I’ve got my own plans anyway. These gym leaders won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“Do you have a full team planned out, Angie?” Aria asks.

“Not yet,” Angie replies. “Flygon and Ninetales…and then maybe water, grass, ghost, and fighting?” She shrugs. “I might just wait and see what jumps out at me.”

“What types do you have in Sinnoh?”

“Water-steel, grass-ground, fighting-flying,” Angie rattles off, as easy as anything. “Electric, dark, and ghost.” She stops, and then adds. “I’d like to have a fire type in there somewhere, but we don’t have a lot of good fire pokemon in Sinnoh, and I like the balance I’ve got at the moment.”

“It’s so cool having a champion doing the gym challenge with us,” Aria says.

“Until we have to battle her _and_ Leon in the Champion Cup,” Eliza points out, pulling a face. “ _And_ Gloria. How did we manage to start the year that there are three champions competing?”

“You won’t even make it to the tournament this year,” Aria says and waves her away. “Plus, there would be even more ex-champions if Leon hadn’t help the title for so long,”

“There’s eleven in Sinnoh,” Angie puts in off-handedly. “If you count people who have beaten the champion but not taken up the position.”

“Isn’t everyone who beats the champion a champion?” Eliza asks sceptically, frowning.

Angie shakes her head. “The League board decide who is the champion, out of the trainers who have beaten a champion before. There’s a lot more work involved in being the Sinnoh champion than there is here, so they pick the person they think has the skills to help run the League as well as being strong enough to hold the champion title. And we have challengers year-round, so if the champion isn’t available for a long time, someone else can just step in.”

“So while you’re here,” Aria says slowly. “There’s someone else acting as the champion in Sinnoh?”

“Yes,” Angie confirms. “A girl called Lauren – I lost the title to her once, so she already knows what to do, and she’s strong enough to not get beaten while I’m gone.”

“Imagine if Galar worked like that,” Eliza says with a wicked grin. “Leon’s on the board here now – he could just make himself champion again.”

“That’s not _really_ how it works,” Angie points out, but gently. “But he’d probably have a good case, if no one has beaten him in ten years.” She pauses, and then adds thoughtfully, “Sinnoh would pick him over me, if he was our champion, for sure.”

“No way!” Aria pipes up. “I bet you’re an amazing champion.”

“Nah,” Angie says wryly. “They liked me when they first gave me the job, but they can’t wait ‘til I get beaten now so that they can replace me. They might even just give Lauren the job for good while I’m away.”

As she speaks, a familiar figure breaks from the group ahead of them, hanging back the couple of steps that it takes for them to catch up to him. “What’re you talking about back here?” Raihan asks as he joins them, sauntering along with his hands stuck in the pockets of his coat.

“How weird it is that you’re wearing anything but your dragon jumper,” Eliza shoots at him.

Raihan pulls a face at her, but Aria interrupts before he can give her an equally scathing reply. “We were talking about the Sinnoh League,” she tells him. “Did you know Angie is the _champion_?”

Raihan glances at Angie, who is to his left, past Eliza. “I do know that, actually,” he says.

Aria openly gapes at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she almost yells, waving her hands in the air like a crazy woman. “All the things I’ve done for you, and you just let me battle a freaking _champion_ without telling me?”

“You won!” Raihan points out. “Don’t psych yourself out now!”

“Too late,” Eliza says dryly and grins when Aria reaches around Raihan to swat at her arm.

“Lets just get down to the Bowl,” the older girl says when she misses. “I want to catch some pokemon before the end of the day.”

**LAUREN**

Hey Angie, sorry about the stuff in the news.  
I didn’t want them to find out like that but we  
weren’t quick enough to stop word getting out.

Hope Galar’s okay and you’re okay.

_✓_ _Seen 1:00pm_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost lost my mind writing this chapter I swear

The Dusty Bowl is about what Angie expects it to be – a dry, sandy depression in the earth that is full of big rocks and copses of leafless trees, sticking up like toothpicks from the ground. She’s told there’s a lake further down, and a couple of nice camping spots with a bit of grass, but they aren’t going that far in today, just dropping down a bit of an incline to rustle around in the rocks and the tall grass at the edge of the bowl to see what they can find.

The others spread out immediately, sure of where they’re going and what they’re looking for, but Angie hesitates, looking around. Where should she go first? She doesn’t want to wander too far, in case she gets herself lost in here, but she does really want to find a Vulpix, and apparently this is the only easy place to get them, unless she wants to travel a couple of days south, to the other side of the Wild Area, and hope for some sunny weather.

“Hey,” she hears behind her and then Eliza appears at her side. She’s got an Ultra Ball in her hand, presumably the home of whatever pokemon she’s starting the gym challenge with. “Vulpix like the rocks,” she advises and points, over to a big cluster of rocks that are easily twice Angie’s height.

“Thanks,” Angie says, and Eliza nods and disappears, weaving her way through a small tangle of trees. Angie removes Trapinch’s ball from her pocket and moves towards the rocks.

True to Eliza’s words, she doesn’t have to spend long wandering between the rocks before she finds a little pack of Vulpix playing in the warm sand that has gathered between several of the bigger ones. She crouches low when she spots them and creeps up, quiet and slow, trying not to disturb them. Vulpix are shy pokemon in the wild, and will often run away from trainers rather than offering a battle. It’s a funny trait for pokemon that otherwise make quite formidable partners. Most pokemon who are brave in battle are brave in the wild as well, but these require a trainer to show them their strength.

She’s unlucky, as she steps into the clearing proper. Her foot finds the only stick in the whole place and before she can stop herself, she steps down onto it, hard enough to break it. The wood, dry and brittle from the sun, snaps with a noise that echoes off the rocks like a gunshot, loud and obnoxious. The Vulpix snap to attention, stopping dead in their tracks…and then they scatter, disappearing into the rocks in every direction.

She releases her Trapinch, hoping to corner at least one of them, but she’s slow off the bat and her pokemon is new to this whole idea of catching pokemon, and she misses all of them. In a matter of seconds, the clearing is empty, except for her and her Trapinch.

The pokemon turns and croaks at her in confusion. “I know,” she says and crouches down to pat him on the head. “It’s not your fault. You’re just a little baby.” Maybe this would be harder than she thought.

A little mewling sound from the other side of the clearing makes her look up, and then around in surprise. At first, she spots nothing – and then, a Vulpix creeps out of the rocks and cautiously approaches.

“Hello,” Angie says softly, and doesn’t dare move, in case she scares it. Slowly, she removes her hand from Trapinch’s head and offers it, flat-palmed, to the Vulpix. “You’re very brave, aren’t you?”

The Vulpix stops, well out of reach, and then coughs a small flame at her outstretched fingers. Angie snaps her hand back before she can be burnt. “Do you want to battle?” she asks and the Vulpix barks and raises its tail, like it’s preparing for a fight.

“Alright then, Trapinch,” Angie says and half-rises, so that she can shuffle backwards. The Vulpix flinches when she stands, so she remains on the ground, leaning her back against a rock as she watches Trapinch waddle forwards to challenge the Vulpix.

The battle that follows is unremarkable, though it teaches Angie a few things about her pokemon. She has a type advantage, but she doesn’t use it, afraid that she might send the Vulpix fleeing back to its friends. She’s afraid she might anyway – her Trapinch is all over the place, its attack power varying wildly from move to move. She suspects that he might have only ever battled inside a gym, in a carefully controlled environment, and being out here in nature (and in this place that is so suited to ground types, too), he isn’t sure what to do with himself.

The Vulpix is strong, she notes too, already pulling off the basic steps to some powerful moves, but vastly ineffective, especially at a type disadvantage as it is. She’ll have a lot to work on, if she catches it – and she does catch it, with just one toss of a Great Ball, at the breaking point of the battle.

“Good job!” she enthuses to her Trapinch as he leaps back over to her, delighted at being victorious. “You’ll be a big strong Flygon in no time! Look at you!” He leaps into her lap and she rubs his big head, happy to have proven she can win at least _one_ battle in Galar.

“Want to meet our new friend?” she asks, and he chirps and shoves her in the chest excitedly. She laughs and goes to throw Vulpix’s ball; and then stops and reaches behind her for the side pocket of her backpack. “We’d better invite Arcanine too,” she tells Trapinch and sets the large lion pokemon free too. He bounds a full lap of the rocks before returning at her shrill whistle, whining like an excited puppy.

“Sit down, Arcanine,” she tells him and pats the ground beside her, and he huffs and does what he’s told, wriggling around until he’s comfortable in the warm sand and then glaring at Trapinch, who is determinedly crawling further and further into her lap. “Stop it, you two,” she scolds them gently, tugging Arcanine’s ear, and then releases Vulpix.

It’s probably a silly idea, she thinks as she does it, to let her brand new and very flighty pokemon go straight away and in such an open area, but she just can’t help herself; if she has to spend an hour chasing it, well, it’s a risk she’s willing to take.

Vulpix doesn’t run though. It leaps into the sand and shakes, and then turns to look at her with wary eyes and fire gathering in the back of its throat. It’s hunkered down, trying to seem threatening despite its size. At the sight of it, Arcanine growls and half-rises in defense of Angie – it’s touching, but not what she needs right now.

“Hey,” she says sharply and bats him on the shoulder, just as Vulpix yaps back. Arcanine withdraws like he’s been shot, burrowing into the sand and hiding his face in submission. Angie rolls her eyes at him, and resists the urge to tell him what a wimp he is.

Vulpix pauses, confused, and the flames die in his throat, his jaw slowly closing. “That’s better,” Angie says and leans forward over Trapinch, her voice becoming sickly-sweet. “See? It’s not that bad.” Vulpix takes one step towards her, reaching out carefully with his nose, and then another. “See?” She reaches out a hand, slowly as she can, and Vulpix steps forward and sniffs at the air, inches from her hand.

There’s a rumbling in the ground and then the sand in the centre of the rocks starts to kick up. Arcanine is the first to react, yelping in terror and disappearing into his pokeball. Angie clutches at Trapinch and stares in surprise. Vulpix freezes, caught between two evils as a large Sandaconda bursts from the ground – and then he bolts, disappearing between two rocks.

“God _dammit,_ ” Angie swears and scrambles to her feet, her breath hitching in the back of her throat. The Sandaconda hisses and circles, kicking sand up and over its smooth skin, and she backs away quickly, barely resisting the urge to turn and bolt. This is one of her worst nightmares – she doesn’t like snake pokemon, not at _all_ , and this one looks _strong_ , and she’s out here with one little baby pokemon that barely knows how to battle and an Arcanine that can’t look a big pokemon like this in the eye, let alone battle it. _And_ her Vulpix has run off to god knows where.

The Sandaconda turns and looks at her, with green eyes that almost seem to glow despite the bright sunlight.

“Hey!” a voice shouts, and then Raihan shoulders past her, putting himself firmly between her and the big, stupid snake. “Stop that!” he tells it, very firmly, and to Angie’s surprise the pokemon rears back, suitably chastened. She’s even more surprised when Raihan pulls out a pokeball and recalls it, the Sandaconda disappearing in a beam of red light.

“Sorry,” he says as he turns to face her, tucking away the pokeball.

Angie gapes at him, aghast. “That’s _your_ pokemon?” she burst out, and almost drops Trapinch. Raihan nods slowly, slightly confused. “What the _hell_ is it doing out here? Why do you even _have_ one of those? That’s-that’s not a dragon-”

“Um,” he says, taken aback by the tone of her voice. Did he think she would be non-chalant, about the huge, strong pokemon bearing down on her? “Type diversity?” he tries, and then hurries to add, “I just let her out so that she could dig in the sand. She wasn’t supposed to come over here and bother anybody.”

“Wasn’t supposed to-” Angie’s not really sure what to say – she’s shaking a bit, actually, and struggling to find a way to _politely_ address how she feels right now. “Do you know what you’re doing with ground types?” she asks after a moment, and okay, it’s not exactly the polite way to do things after all, but at least she’s not _yelling_ at him. “Or do you just have dragons? Ground-ground types aren’t like dragon types, you know.”

“What? I know how to train ground pokemon,” he tells her, a little perturbed by the suggestion that he might not. “She just likes to play, she didn’t mean – wait.”

His eyes narrow, staring at her suspiciously. Her grip tightens instinctively and Trapinch squawks, squeezed too tight by her arms. She swears and puts him down, shuffling out of the way of his snapping teeth. “Are you afraid of snakes?” Raihan asks, a note of humour in his voice.

Angie’s eyes shoot up from her pokemon to him, and for a moment she’s frozen, trying to judge whether he’s intending to mock her or simply curious. “Maybe,” she says defensively, which is essentially a _yes_ anyway. “Who wouldn’t be? It’s a big, fuck-off snake, and all I have with me is this tiny baby bug!”

“Trapinch isn’t a bug,” Raihan reminds her smugly. “How is a champion afraid of snakes?”

“Lots of people are afraid of snakes!” Angie argues. “It’s got nothing to do with being a champion.”

“Yeah? What do you do if you have to fight one?”

She shrugs, gesturing helplessly. “One hit knock out?” she suggests. “They’re not a problem in _normal_ battles. And most people don’t just let them explode out of the ground right in front of me! Imagine if I was a little kid, out here on the gym challenge and that thing decided to play a game with me! It’s freaking _terrifying_!”

His face changes as he thinks about it. “You’re right,” he says, the humour of his previous remarks fading from his voice. “I’ll keep a proper eye on her from now on, okay? Promise.”

Angie pauses, and then nods, accepting his apology. Awkward silence falls between them, dragging on for several long seconds, until she says, “Can you help me find my Vulpix?”

His face brightens. “You caught a pokemon?” he asks.

“Yes,” Angie replies. “But your dumb snake scared him and he ran off before I could get him to return.”

“How long until you stop insulting my pokemon?”

She eyes him speculatively, and then points to the left. “He went this way.” She walks off before he can pursue the topic of his pokemon any further, trusting him to follow her.

They split up, weaving in and out of the rocks as they search for her Vulpix. Angie’s getting a little bit worried now, as time wears on – a pokemon is more likely to come back if it has a pokeball, sure, but that’s no guarantee that they _will_ , always. She hasn’t even gotten close to her Vulpix yet, let alone formed enough of a bond to be sure that he would return. And the Sandaconda will have scared off everything in the area after that spectacle, so her chances of finding another one…

A shout rises from Raihan’s side of the rocks, and she spins on her heel, hurrying towards the source of the sound. He’s under a big rock that is held up by a pile of smaller ones, half-crouched awkwardly in the cave-like space in an attempt to reach the back of it. Her Vulpix is huddled, trapped, in the far corner, pressed against the rocks and spitting fire at him with nowhere else to go.

“Is this yours?” Raihan asks as she approaches sparing a glance back at her and almost getting burnt for his efforts.

“I think so,” Angie replies and crawls in next to him, lying down on her stomach in the soft sand (thank god she dressed for climbing around in the dirt, rather than any sort of good clothes, after this whole little adventure). Raihan copies her pose and slowly, her Vulpix calms, from terrified and threatened to soft, worried eyes, cowering against the rocks.

“Hey there,” Angie says quietly, and reaches for the berries stuffed in her pocket. She picks one out, an ordinary Oran berry, and tosses it in the sand between them. “The big, stupid snake is gone now, promise.”

“Hey!” Raihan hisses, but softly, eyes tracking between her and the pokemon. Vulpix lets out a sad little noise and creeps forwards; and then pauses again, staring uncertainly at Raihan.

Angie bites back a smile. “I don’t think he likes you,” she says, struggling not to laugh. Raihan pulls a face.

“Alright, alright,” he grumbles, and crawls backwards, out of the rocks. “I see where I’m not wanted.” He disappears from sight, standing up in the sunshine behind her, and Angie focuses her attention back on Vulpix.

Slowly, slowly, he creeps forwards and eats the berry, one eye always fixed on her. She takes out another when he’s done and lays it in the palm of her hand, reaching out as far as she dares to offer it to him. Vulpix sniffs the air and leans forwards towards her hand, reaching tentatively for the berry. She hardly dares move, not until soft whiskers brush her skin and the sweet juice of the berry trickles between her fingers as he takes a bite of it, closer than he’s ever been to her before.

“ _Good boy_ ,” she whispers and reaches just a little bit further to scratch the fur of his chest. He yaps and wriggles away so that he can lick the berry juice off her fingers instead, and a giggle bursts from her chest at the boldness of his movement, the way the tension in the air between them snaps and the world rushes back in, and _now_ they are pokemon and trainer, not enemies chasing each other across a battlefield.

She stays there, in the sand under a pile of rocks, for several minutes more, coaxing her pokemon closer and closer, before finally he allows her to wrap an arm around him and drag them awkwardly out of the little hidey-hole, back into the warm sun of the Dusty Bowl. When she turns around and sits upright in the dirt, Angie’s surprised to find that Raihan is still there, sitting with his back against a rock not two metres away and playing with his phone. She expects him to look up when she emerges, Vulpix in tow, but he doesn’t rouse, too busy staring at his phone with a small frown on his face.

Their previous conversation plays back in her head as she runs her fingers down her fox pokemon’s back, carding through his soft fur. She’s…not proud of some of the things she’d blurted out earlier, now that she’s had time to calm down. Is that what he’s unhappy about? Maybe. It would be just her luck, to ruin her chances at making friends just two days into an adventure; because if Raihan doesn’t like her, then surely none of the others will either, and if word gets around that she’s on the wrong side of a gym leader…

“I’m sorry I said your Sandaconda is stupid and horrible,” she mumbles, and sets her eyes firmly on Vulpix rather than having to look at him. “And that you don’t know how to train ground types. I was just-”

“Scared?” Raihan finishes for her, and out of the corner of her eye, she can see him looking at her.

“Yeah,” she admits, and he laughs – but not loud, and not at her, so far as she can tell. Slowly, she looks up at him, and finds that now he is wearing the ghost of a smile, relaxing back against the rock.

“Angie, I need to talk to you,” he sighs as the smile fades and his frown from before returns, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “About your endorsement.”

“What about it?” Angie asks and straightens a little, careful not to jostle the Vulpix that is snuggling deeper and deeper into her lap.

“Well,” he begins slowly, like he doesn’t know what he wants to say. “I _was_ going to say that I can’t endorse you, because – listen, I looked you up online last night, to see your teams and stuff, and I’m sure you know what your Bulbapedia page says, let alone the rest of-”

“Yeah, I know what it says,” she interrupts, her fingers pausing on Vulpix’s back. Her voice sounds small and shuddering, useless against the low frustration of his own. “If you’re worried about the enquiries, I’ve _never_ been charged with cheating or _anything._ Never.”

“I know,” he assures her and holds out a hand to stop her before she can continue. “It’s just…you know it’s a risk for me, right? I endorse trainers under Hammerlocke Gym’s name, and if those trainers give the gym a bad name, I’m the one that loses my job.”

“I get it,” she says, and tries to focus on breathing. It feels kind of like nothing is getting into her lungs; they’re blocked up by the anger and hatred and disappointment in herself that is stacking up and bubbling over in her stomach. Raihan clears his throat.

“Here’s the thing, though,” he says, when he’s sure he still has her attention. “I watched you battling today, and then just now, with the Vulpix in the rocks…and you don’t seem…evil? And I know what the internet can be like when they don’t like you…” He trails off, like he’s lost everything he was going to say next.

“So?” Angie prompts him tentatively.

“So,” he repeats slowly, and lets out a breath. “So I don’t know what to think, Angie Sommars. I’m actually kind of hoping you’ll be able to explain it to me.”

There’s a long silence. Angie stares hard at the ground, scrambling to come up with a good enough explanation to convince him to give her an endorsement. “I don’t think I can,” she says eventually, when she can’t put enough words together to even form a sentence, let alone a convincing one. “I just can’t get my shit together, I guess.”

Raihan considers her answer. “Tell me why you came to Galar,” he requests. “Not for the gym challenge, but…why you would leave the region you’re the current champion of so randomly, just to come and try to win the same title here.”

“I didn’t come here to win the championship,” she corrects him. “I came here to do something other than sit in that stupid castle in Sinnoh and win battles that everyone wishes I would lose, so that they can get rid of me.” She pauses, and then adds, “And to prove to them that I’m not some decoration they can show off and do whatever they like with and then throw away when I get a bit worn down.”

Raihan’s gaze is even and carefully neutral, unreadable. “And what about the thing in November, with the Elite Four?” he asks and she tenses, withdrawing her hands from Vulpix’s warm fur.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she tells him stiffly. “But it’s not…what it sounds like. It should never have happened.”

“Okay,” he says, before she can properly panic, and then stands and stretches, offering an end to the conversation. There’s a beat, and then Angie stands too, Vulpix uncurling from her lap as she unfolds her legs and clambers to her feet, the fox hiding behind her ankles at the sight of Raihan towering over him, too tall to be anything but menacing to such a small pokemon. She rummages around in her pocket for his pokeball and returns him, tucking the ball into the side pocket of her bag with Arcanine’s.

“How about this,” Raihan says when he is ready, his phone gripped tight in his hand like a lifeline. “I’ll endorse you. But I’m keeping a close eye on you, and we meet up once a week or so, so I can see your pokemon and stuff. And if _anything_ happens, you pull out of the challenge straight away. Deal?”

Angie stares at him, like she can’t quite believe what she’s hearing, until he opens his mouth like he’s about to say something else – to rescind the offer, maybe. “Deal!” she hurries to say then, before he can say anything else, and offers him her hand. “Whatever you want. Anything’s honestly better than going back to Sinnoh right now.”

_Finally_ he smiles, the same carefree sort of way from yesterday, rather than the tense curve of the lips he’s been putting on all day today, and shakes her hand. “We should find the others,” he says instead of answering. “Before someone gets into trouble with a pokemon that _isn’t_ mine.” He turns and starts off between the rocks, looking back only once to beckon for her to follow.

Angie takes a deep breath, filling her lungs with relief just as much as air, and goes, back to the other trainers and the rest of the day.

**KITTY**

angiesteam.png

gengar.png

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prof rowan says to tell you that  
your pokemon miss you

also he misses you

also fyi your gengar is in solitary  
confinement because he’s Awful

_✓ Seen 2:03pm_


End file.
